


Penny for Your Thoughts?

by hrhowling



Series: Get Your Shit Together [3]
Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: Finally, Gen, Post-War, Skavel, Snippets, War Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 14:48:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11015604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hrhowling/pseuds/hrhowling
Summary: Throughout the war, it becomes an important phrase among them, keeping their bridges from burning and their sanity from collapsing.





	Penny for Your Thoughts?

**Author's Note:**

> A slightly more serious one to put in the ‘Get your shit together’ au. Most of it takes place during the war, except for the last two. Enjoy.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Frowning, Erskine looked up from the torn map in his hands to look at Hopeless. “What?”

“Penny for your thoughts,” Hopeless repeated, blue-eyed and round-faced. “It means ‘what’s on your mind?’, I picked it up from a few mortals in England.”

The frown on Erskine’s face deepened. “Is it really that obvious?” he asked.

“Right now it is. So, penny for your thoughts?”

Erskine bit his lip, thinking. “I’m… I guess I’m just tired.”

“Nightmares again?”

“Nightmares would imply that I actually slept.”

Hopeless’s eyes widened and his brow furrowed. “Again?”

“Yes. Again.”

“Did you talk to Skulduggery about it?”

“Yeah. I think we managed to figure it out.”

“That’s good to hear.”

* * *

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Erskine’s head felt oddly heavy on his shoulders as he lifted his gaze from the dirt beneath his feet. Ghastly was standing over him, his eyes bright with concern.

“He just left,” he said quietly.

“I know,” Ghastly murmured.

“What am I **meant** to think? What does he expect me to do?”

“He told us to look after each other, so… I guess we just do as he asks.”

“I’ve never talked to anyone but him about what happened to me, though.”

Ghastly sighed and sat down next to him, the cold wind tugging at his clothes. “You can try and talk to me?” he offered. “We’re all right here, you know.“

“I know. Thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

* * *

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Skukduggery looked up from the flames of the campfire, into the tired gold eyes of Erskine.

“I beg your pardon?” he queried. If he’d had eyebrows, one would be raised right now.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Erskine repeated, fiddling with a literal penny in his hand. “It means what’s on your mind?”

“Ah. I’ve missed a fair bit, it seems.”

“You have. Anton and Larrikin are together now.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Murmuring in agreement, Erskine sat down on the floor by Skulduggery’s feet and rested his head on Skulduggery’s knee.

“I’m sorry,” Skulduggery sighed, running a hand through Erskine’s hair. “I hurt you, didn’t I?”

“A bit.”

“I wouldn’t have left if I knew I wouldn’t have hurt you more.”

“I know. It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not.”

“It **is**. You were losing yourself, and you left so that no one would get hurt. I’m not upset with you.”

“Really?”

“Yes, so shut up and stop moping.”

* * *

“You’re doing that face again. Penny for your thoughts?”

“Do you still feel pain where he hurt you sometimes?”

“My fingers feel numb from time to time. Why?”

“My eye’s burning. I-I can’t sleep.”

Skulduggery didn’t say anything as he sat down on the couch next to Erskine and wrapped his arms around him.

“If I have the time, I put them in ice water.”

“Tried it. Nearly drowned myself.”

“I’ll go get you an ice pack. That might work better than shoving your head into a bucket.”

“Thank you. Also, I used the sink, not a bucket.”

“You shoved your head underwater, there’s honestly no difference.”

* * *

“Penny for your thoughts?”

“What did I do to deserve you?”

“You got your shit together and helped me.”

“I’m fairly sure all I really did was strangle you and get you drunk.”

“And listened to me yell at you for hours, then spent the next two centuries making sure I didn’t try to kill myself.”

“That wasn’t just me, you know.”

“It was mostly you.”

“What would’ve happened if I hadn’t, though?”

“I’d be dead, probably. Rotting away in a forgotten corner of the world, alone.”

“I would most likely still be an emotionally stunted shitwit.”

“Heh… that shouldn’t be funny.”

“What about Valkyrie?”

“Hopefully, she wouldn’t have had us to ruin everything for her. She’d have been okay.”

“Hmm… Sorry about the existential crisis, love.”

“Nah, I love a good crisis at three in the morning. Builds character.”

“I love you.”

“Love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Penny for your thoughts? My SP blog is jumpingfromwindows.


End file.
